Ragtag Prompt # 26 – Navigate
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I will say it again.
I am lost. I am always lost.
Sometimes, this is a great thing. On vacation in Ireland, having no idea where we were or even where we were going turned out to be an adventure. We discovered things you can’t find in guidebooks. We missed most of the places everyone goes, found places no one discovers.
Somewhere in Ireland
We navigated our way from one end of the island to another. We found stone circles and earthworks and pubs. Lots of pubs. Historic Pubs. The pubs in which Peter O’Toole drank far too much.
Singing pubs. We told everyone it was our honeymoon, which was true, so we got a lot of extra mead and Irish coffee and better rooms.
We never knew where we were and that was fine.
Ireland
Navigation. We don’t navigate. We just drive around until we found another great pub or better yet someplace that sold Harris tweed suits.
Dublin, September 1990
My moral?
Don’t navigate. Give it up. Go forth. Find what comes. Don’t worry about whether you’ve found the right place. They are ALL right places.
Discovery is the name of the game.
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Categories: #Photography, Daily Prompt, Vacation
CODDIWOMPLE IN IRELAND – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Aw…
This is lovely. The tweed jackets are so hip and you two look so happy on the photo.
The best way to enjoy a place is to leave the navigation system alone. Easier in 1990, for sure:)
Glad you you explored Ireland this way.
Irish coffees are my weakness, but only when it’s cold and damp, which is fairly rare nowadays for me. Probably better:)
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I’m not much of a drinker, but the Irish coffee was SO good! Most of our trips have been random driving until we discovered something. Unless we were visiting someone who could take us around. Otherwise, we usually wing it. For me, not being tied to a schedule is the best part of a vacation. Anywhere 🙂
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Garry and Marilyn; the Irish are still very friendly. It was the same for us in the SW of England – everybody was so laid-back it was incredible. People had time for each other, and strangely, every work still got done – undoubtedly a bit later than we Swiss sometimes would have liked but it got done – and it was balm for the nerves!!!!
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The Irish were really funny about Americans. They said we were one of the few countries that hadn’t invaded them, so they were really good with us 🙂 Parts of England were wonderful. London was like New York with an accent. But I think cities are more alike than different, though I really liked Dublin.
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It’s not the destination, as they say, it’s the journey.
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It was the journey. And the Irish coffee (I really loved that coffee) — and the shopping and the earthworks and just the people. It was a zero hostility environment.
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That’s a wonderful way to travel, Marilyn. You guys make a great looking couple.
Leslie
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It was great. We didn’t even have a place to sleep. We picked one out of the book we got at the airport — as soon as we figured out where we were, of course. The few destinations we planned — scouting out the places where they shot “The Quiet Man” were easy enough to find because they ARE on the map. And it was so friendly!
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You get to see places that you wouldn’t normally see that way….
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such sweet young things! Great story, and a good approach.
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We were 43 and 48. Sweet. Not necessarily so young, though right now, it seems as if we were children.
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I was viewing it from my current perspective, where anything in the 40’s is young.
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My son is turning 50. I think HE is young 😀
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i am exactly the same, marilyn. and i too, have surrendered to the universe, end up where i end up, and make new and wonderful discoveries in doing so.
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Please don’t hate me for saying that but I went: Oooooohhhhh they’re SO sweet. I LOVED your honeymoon story and I can add one to your Ireland story, only it was in Wales! Friends of ours, a German couple living in England since forever and a day went on hols in Wales. They were driving ‘in circles’ not finding the place they should be …. The wife told her husband over and over: This can’t be right, we have driven past this sign several times and yet, it always looks different…. Turned out that the sign she retained was a sign signaling toilet houses in the wilderness of Wales and were not names of places or villages or what-not. It seems, all the same, that you did much better finding all those pubs and lovely places! You are a very special couple and you made important discoveries for your life together! Bravo.
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We found all kinds of places — earthworks and standing stones no one had marked. There are a LOT of pubs in Ireland, so finding them wasn’t difficult. Every town had at least a few and Dublin was pub city. I loved it. I only wished we’d had just one more week.
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we had such a wonderful time…..and, were treated warmly wherever we went.
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Discovery- you are right!
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